Senator Barack Obama Visit South Africa

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AP) -- U-S Senator Barack Obama says the lessons he learned from South Africans' fight for freedom helped inspire his own political career.

Obama continued his trip to Africa Wednesday by touring the black township of Soweto in South Africa.

The Illinois Democrat visited the Hector Pieterson Museum, which commemorates the children gunned down by police 30 years ago as they staged a peaceful protest. That attack awakened the world to the brutality of the apartheid regime.

Obama says he was 15 years old at the time and became involved in politics three years later to fight for divestment of U-S interests in South Africa.

He says he might not be in the Senate today if it wasn't for what he learned from the situation in South Africa then.

Online Public Information File

Viewers with disabilities can get assistance accessing this station's FCC Public Inspection File by contacting the station with the information listed below. Questions or concerns relating to the accessibility of the FCC's online public file system should be directed to the FCC at 888-225-5322, 888-835-5322 (TTY), or fccinfo@fcc.gov.